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At all.

I did my best to control the instinctive urge to edge farther away from him and said, “I gather you brought me here to assign my first relic hunt?”

“Indeed, although our plans have been somewhat sidelined by the other night’s unfortunate event.” The rat man’s voice was like his face—sharp and unpleasant.

“That wasn’t unfortunate, that was a deliberate, targeted attack, as you are well aware.” Cynwrig’s smokey and oh-so-sexy tone held a backbone of steel—one the wise would not ignore. It wouldn’t take much to set him off.

“It was also not a solitary event,” Mathi said. “The same man who destroyed Cynwrig’s building attempted to do the same to Kaitlyn Avery’s building.”

A murmur rose, though the rat shifter and several others nodded. “The IIT promised a prelim report this morning, but as yet, have not furnished it. I gather you and Ms. Aodhán managed to prevent the destruction?”

“Yes, although the elf behind the attack unfortunately escaped,” Mathi replied. “It is likely the men hired to provide protection know as little as those who were running interference during the attack on Cynwrig’s building.”

“And Kaitlyn herself?” a tall, thin light elf asked. Her green eyes said she was from the Gila-Ken line. “Did either of you interview her after the event?”

“We did,” Mathi said. “She wasn’t able to provide all that much information.”

“And you believed her?” The big man sitting to Cynwrig’s right snorted. “In that case, I have a bridge to sell you.”

“Oh, she didn’t lie. She didn’t dare. Not to me.”

Mathi didn’t elaborate, but he obviously didn’t need to. The big man—a bear shifter if his bushy hair and beard was anything to go by—simply studied him for a second and then nodded.

“She did, however,” I said, “make one interesting comment. She said there’d been an elf seeking the shield and its ruby well before the hoard was stolen, and that those rumors fell silent about seven or eight months ago.”

“Which is just before the hoard was stolen,” the rat commented. “Perhaps our elven mage was involved in that theft.”

“Except for one problem—the rumors are said to have gone silent because he found the rubies.”

“But not the shield?” Cynwrig asked.

My gaze briefly got lost in the glory of his. “Not as far as she was aware.”

“That makes no sense,” the dwarf said, his voice deep and gravelly. “What use are the rubies without the shield?”

“You mean, aside from what a mage did with one of them the other night?” Cynwrig said, his mild tone countered by the anger in his eyes.

The dwarf waved a hand, perhaps in acknowledgement.

“From what I’ve been able to uncover about the rubies,” I said, before things could get too antsy, “one holds the power of an unholy fire that can destroy all things, one can liquify earth, and the other has the power of the smith, which apparently enables the user to destroy anything created by a smith.”

The bear shifter sniffed. “The latter doesn’t seem too bad?—”

“It would depend on the definition of a smith,” Cynwrig commented, glancing at him. “A smelting works could technically be considered a modern-day smithy.”

I nodded. “Combining all three within the shield will destroy land and building, but its scope is limited in size.”

“So, city destroying rather than world,” the rat shifter said. “I do not personally find that comforting.”

“Given what the Claws were capable of, and what could have happened had Rogan targeted our world rather than Annwfyn, I tend to disagree,” I said.

A gray-haired elf with heavily lined features grunted. He was what elves called an elder statesman, which basically meant he was well past breeding age and now in the twilight years of his long lifespan. “And now the Annwfyn have a relic with the capability of destroying us.”

“Presuming, of course, they are capable of magic?—”

“Oh, they are,” Cynwrig commented.

The bear shifter glanced at him but continued, “—and whether they are even capable of touching let alone using something forged by the gods of this world.”